Theory

Intervals:

• The combinations of intervals gives music different shapes. It can be:
  • Conjunct
  • Disjunct
  • Chromatic
• An arpeggio is the rising and falling melody using the notes of a chord
• Broken chords are alterations of the first, third, and fifth degrees of a scale
• Scales are sets of notes ordered by increasing or decreasing pitch

Melodies:

• There are three ways to describe a melody:
  • Diatonic melodies are based on major and minor scales
  • Chromatic melodies are notes outside the music key
  • Atonal melodies aren’t based on a key or tonal centre
• 

Phrases:

• End with cadences
• Musical sentences

Types of Chord:

• Triad
  • 3 notes
  • Root, third and fifth
• Dominant and subdominant
  • I - tonic
  • IV - subdominant
  • V - dominant
• Sevenths
  • The dominant seventh of a V chord is shown as V7
• Concord
  • All notes agree with each other
  • Complete
• Discord
  • Notes clash
  • Unsettling
• Diatonic
  • Notes belonging to a key
• Chromatic
  • Notes outside a key

Cadences:

• Perfect cadences are V - I
• Interrupted cadences are minor and surprising
• Imperfect cadences end on V. They sound unfinished
• Plagal cadences sound finished. They are IV - I

Sometimes cadences end in major chord instead of an expected minor chord. This is a Tierce de Picardie

Tonality:

• The character of music related to its key is tonality
  • Tonal music - major or minor key
  • Atonal music - not related to tonic, no sense of key
  • Modal music - in a mode
  • Dorian mode
  • Mixolydian mode

Modulation:

• When music changes key, it modulates
• This generally happens to a closely related key
• The keys which are closest to the tonic are the dominant, subdominant or relative minor/major keys

Bass:

• Drones are held or repeated chords through a piece of music
  • Usually a bare fifth
• Pedals are single notes which are held on or repeated in bass parts
• Inverted pedal notes sustained or repeated in a higher register
• Ground bass is used in baroque music. The bass part is repeated throughout the piece. They can last for many bars
• Ostinatos are repeating patterns/motifs

Structure:

• Repetition
  • Some sections are repeated
• Double bars
  • Double bar lines (sometimes with repeats) happen at the end of sections
• Keys, cadences
  • Some structures modulate to specific keys at certain points
  • There are clear cadences at the end of sections, which indicate key changes
• Melodies
  • Some sections have distinctive melodies
• Textures
  • Some music has specific textures in specific sections
• Words
  • Any repeated text will help identify structures

Musical terms (stolen from BBC Bitesize):

• Compound time is where each beat is a dotted note, for example, 6/8, 9/8 and 12/8

Rhythmic Techniques:

• Syncopation - notes held over beats, instead of only offbeats
• Cross rhythm - two conflicting rhythms heard together
• Polyrhythm - two or more rhythms with different pulses are heard together
• Triplets - three notes played in the time of two
• Hemiola - Gives the impression of music speeding up, but instead, they are the changing of time signature
• Diminuition - musical idea repeated with note values halved
• Augmentation - musical idea repeated with note values doubled
• Offbeats - the weaker beats of the bar
• Anacrusis - Musical phrase starting just before the bar line
• Rubato - performer has the freedom to relax the tempo

Simple dynamics (courtesy of BBC bite-size):

Simple articulation (BBC Bite-size):

Vocal range examples:

Texture:

• Unison
  • No chordal accompaniment
• Monophonic
  • One line of music
  • One instrument
  • No accompaniment
  • No secondary melody
  • Can be done in unison
• Homophonic
  • Block chords / choral music
• Polyphonic
  • Aka contrapuntal music
  • May have imitation
  • Add ornaments
  • Change in octabe
  • Same melody in notes of different duration
  • Fugues
  • The specific type of polyphonic texture
  • Begin with the melody played on a solo instrument, voice, or in unison
  • Then it is played by all of the other instruments in turn, but not at the same pitch
• Heterophonic
  • Simultaneous variation of a single melody line
  • Variations played over the original melody
  • ie gamelan
• Antiphonal
  • More than one group of instruments/voices
  • Played in different parts of the concert venue
  • Melody passed between the groups
• Melody and accompaniment
  • You can clearly distinguish between the two
• Countermelody
  • Secondary melody played in counterpoint with original melody
  • Common in fugues
• Descant
  • Additional melody played on top of existing texture
  • Last verse of carols when sopranos sing higher

Notes:
1 Tonic
2 Supertonic
3 Median
4 Subdominant
5 Dominant
6 Submediant
7 Leading note

8 Octave

Tonality:

• F major scale has one flat
• C major scale has no sharps or flats
• Enharmonic notes - when a note can be called two different things (for example Eb and D#)
• Relative minors
  • Count down three semitones
  • The pattern of melodic minor keys is:
  • Tone - semitone - tone - tone - tone - tone - semitone ascending and tone - tone - semitone - tone - tone - semitone - tone descending
  • Harmonic minors use the relative major and raise the seventh note
• Minor scales
  • Melodic minor
  • The sixth and seventh degrees are raised on the way up and flattened on the way down
  • Harmonic minor
  • Augmented second between the sixth and seventh degree of the scale
• Triads of a key are shown using roman numerals
• Modal - This means that the music is in a mode
• Atonal - This means that the music is not related to a tonic - no sense of key
• Tonal - In a major or minor key
• Pentatonic scale - a five-note scale. Usually, it will be I, II, III, V, VI (especially common in Chinese and Japanese music)
• Whole Tone scale - scale where there are ONLY whole tones between the notes used (6 notes total, especially common in impressionism)
• Working out sharp keys (major) - look at the last sharp, and go up one step
• Working out flat keys (major) - look at the second to last flat

Tempo key terms (courtesy of bitesize):